Dramapearls is a blog dedicated to reviewing and documenting Korean and Chinese Dramas

Available on: Netflix, Viki

Total episode #: 16

Dumpling-rating scale: 4/5

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (김비서가 왜 그럴까) is a drama for the fans. It is a romantic comedy involving no more than two good looking people, a simple plot and some serious sound effects. And it worked.

At first I was sceptical about this drama. I thought it would be in the style of the k-drama Noble, My Love and depict the typical love story of an arrogant/powerful CEO/President and his delicate/incapable underling/love interest. It was not (well at least it wasn’t told in that style).

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim is a story of a narcissistic chaebol Vice-President who realises he cannot live without his secretary when she decides to quit. Although the storyline is quite typical, it is told with a twist and some very heavy product placement (special shout-out to Domino’s).

Despite, my general feelings towards this drama, I admit that it is rightly criticised that from episode 12 (of 16) the storyline does not progress (at all). For the diehard fans the *moments* are worth the watch, but for others – it would be possible to stop and not miss a thing (except those precious-precious Park-Park *moments*).

This drama is perfect if you want something light, airy and easy. I enjoyed the pace of this drama, the supporting characters and the chemistry between Park Min-young as Kim Mi-so and Park Seo-joon as Lee Young-joon.

What particularly surprised me was the sheer number of laugh out loud moments this drama provided.There really isn’t too much going on in terms of storyline but it has a way of keeping you engaged throughout. It’s kind of like cream cheese on a toasted pumpkin bagel… very simple but hits all the right spots.

Here are my top 5 episodes!:

I. Episode 3 (especially at 10:30-14:00, 16:30-18:00 and 28:00-33:22)

Young-joon in this episode woos Mi-soo in an attempt to convince her not to quit her job. Despite his efforts he finds himself insecure…

…jealous…

…and in need of a lesson or two in chivalry (because, according to Young Joon, being cold knows no gender…).

II. Episode 4 (especially at 14:00-18:00 and 22:51-25:00)

Some semblance of a storyline starts to form in this episode. Young Joon starts experiencing night terrors from a past childhood trauma and an antagonistic brother returns to Seoul.

💖 More importantly, our couple are starting to develop feelings for each other 💖